The game controller for guys who have medals on their chests, or wish they did.

Packaging

From the moment the box arrived at my door delivered by a courier who strained from its weight, I knew I was in for a new experience.   When I opened the box, I gasped.  Here was the Hummer of PC flight controllers.  And like the Hummer, you’ll either love it or hate it, but you can’t stop gawking.  The Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar is a hard-core, state-of-the-art piece of hardware for serious flight simulator enthusiasts.  

Forget all other flight sticks you’ve owned.  You know what I mean – the plastic casings and plastic buttons. The light weight.  The easy on the wallet price tags.  They weren’t playing around when they designed the Cougar.  The throttle and the stick are all metal construction.   The Cougar must be heavier than the chocks used to hold a 747 in place.  You could use either of these pieces to hammer roofing nails into place, but be careful because the nails might break. 

The HOTAS (“Hands on Throttle and Stick”) Cougar is a beast.  There is no other way to describe it.  I don’t think you could break these pieces with a sledgehammer (but please don’t try this).  And true to intent, the system is an exact replica of the equipment on a real fighter jet – the F-16 Falcon – right down to the labels under the buttons and switches.

This brute of a controller might seem unappealing to a gamer who finds the Wii controller the epitome of gaming delight, but to a hard core flight sim enthusiast,  one look at the Cougar is love at first sight.   In the box with the beast: a very brief, multi-language install guide, a 183-page reference manual, and a CD containing HOTAS Cougar control panel software and Foxy programming software.    

A 183 page reference manual for a game controller?  Most computers don’t have manuals that big.   Now you know what I meant by hard core.